Cloud Clippers

<p><em>The big storm over Amarillo was breathing down our necks now having reversed itself completely and I had the choice of flying the canyon something I would not do in a light plane under any circumstances or landing on someone's ranch. Suddenly the plane rose just a fraction of a second then wham! Down she went. </em></p><p> </p><p><em> I heard a loud crack as I pulled the throttle clear back and nosed her down. There goes a wing I thought but Fred shouted in a muffled voice that it was just his head going through the top! And it had through the inner canvas roof. I looked back and there he sat baggage tumbling around his shoulders.</em></p><p><em> </em></p><p> Cloud Clippers: The High-Flying Life of Marie Rae Miller Hubert<em> </em>is the story of a woman's daring and remarkable life. Marie was a teacher meteorologist artist writer poet private and commercial pilot and completely unique mother. Flying was her passion. She earned her private pilot's license in 1945 at age twenty-four then marched into a bank and requested a loan to buy her first plane a Piper J3 Super Cub. She earned her commercial license at twenty-seven taught aviation at a military school set an altitude record in Oregon and helped shape generations of students as a high school teacher.</p><p> </p><p> At age twenty-eight Marie married a Navy veteran Frederick Emil Hubert twenty-six years her senior. Together they flew several cross-countries most of them fraught with storms and close calls. They eventually settled in Florida where at ages forty and sixty-six they received unexpected news: they were going to have a baby. Karen eventually became her mother's co-pilot and travel partner and their numerous adventures together created an unbreakable bond.</p><p> </p><p> In total Marie owned three airplanes each of them dubbed <em>Cloud Clipper</em> in which she completed twelve circumnavigations of the United States. As a child Karen flew with her mom on four cross-countries in a 1958 Forney Aircoupe. Remarkably it's still flying the skies of Oregon.</p><p><br></p><p> Marie continued her journeys by car RV cruise ship and airline long after she sold her final plane; well into her eighties often accompanied by her Siberian husky. Drive alone to Alaska for two months at age seventy-nine? Check. Marie explored every state in the U.S. by small plane car or RV; and visited Mexico Canada a myriad of Caribbean islands and most of Europe. She sailed on seven cruises around the Caribbean to Canada and to Mexico. Impressively she journeyed to forty-eight out of our sixty-three National Parks. </p><p> </p><p> Included in Cloud Clippers are Marie's original flight logs photos newspaper clippings and stories she wrote of her adventures. She was a fierce feminist before there was such a designation and her voice shines bright over the course of her ninety-four unique adventurous years. At its heart Cloud Clippers is a love letter from a daughter to her mother.</p>